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It's hard to imagine life on Earth without oceans. The air you breathe used to be an ocean breeze. The water you drink was once in a cloud over the ocean.

The ocean is also important to the many species of plants and animals that call the water their home. This community of organisms is called an ecosystem.

Human-caused climate change is warming our planet, and the oceans are feeling the heat. Plants and animals in the ocean ecosystem are sensitive to changes in the ocean's temperature. Some organisms can adapt to the change, but others can't survive the warmer temperatures. Since so much life is dependent on these waters, it's important to keep the oceans healthy!

Scientists are monitoring the temperature of the ocean with an instrument called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite. The satellite measures the temperature of the top millimeter of the ocean's surface.

With this activity, learn to make a cool and tasty version of the ocean ecosystem at home!

What you need:

A large, clear bowl

2 - 6 oz boxes of blue gelatin dessert mix

Red licorice twists

Gummy fish

Scissors

Mint leaves

Hot water

Cold water

Liquid measuring cup (not pictured)

Spoon (not pictured)

What to do:

1. Make the ocean water. Follow the directions on the box of blue gelatin dessert mix by pouring 2 cups of hot water into the bowl with 2 packages of blue gelatin powder. Stir for 2 minutes. Once the powder is dissolved, mix in 2 cups of cold water. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for approximately 45 minutes.

Note: This amount of time should allow the gelatin to become a thick liquid that is only slightly firm.

2. Make the coral. While the gelatin is in the refrigerator, use the scissors to cut the red licorice strips into short sections that are only a few inches long. The licorice will represent the coral in your edible ecosystem.

3. Make the seaweed. Cut the mint into segments approximately 2 to 3 inches long. The mint leaves will represent the seaweed in your edible ocean ecosystem.

4. Remove gelatin from refrigerator. After 45 minutes has passed, remove your gelatin from the refrigerator. It should be thicker than liquid, but not completely firm. If the gelatin is still very runny, place it back in the refrigerator for 10 minutes and check it again.

5. Assemble your ocean ecosystem. Once the gelatin has become a thick liquid, begin placing your seaweed (mint), coral (licorice), and fish (gummy fish) in the ocean of blue gelatin. Push each item into the gelatin with your finger. Be sure to place some of your fish, coral, and seaweed right next to the glass so that they're easy to see. When you're done, jiggle the gelatin a bit to repair the holes.

6. Refrigerate the gelatin again. Place gelatin in the refrigerator for another 2 to 3 hours. This will allow the gelatin to become totally firm.

7. Admire and enjoy your tasty ocean-themed dessert!

Related NASA Missions

Ocean Dwellers

Learn more about some of the plants and animals of the ocean ecosystem!

Fish

There are more than 20,000 species of fish in the ocean. Some eat tiny organisms called plankton, some eat plants, and some eat other fish. Fish are an important food source for bigger animals, like whales, dolphins, and even humans.

Seaweed

On land, forests of trees provide shade, food, and housing for many animals. In the ocean, forests made from kelp (a type of seaweed) can do the same thing! While many fish eat the kelp, the seaweed forests also provide shelter and protection for many types of sea life.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Coral

When you first see coral, they often look like big rocky structures. But they are actually communities of living organisms! Corals are tiny animals that glue themselves to rocks on the ocean floor, called reefs. Coral reefs are important homes for fish and other ocean life, but they are also very sensitive to temperature changes in the ocean.

Learn about coral bleaching with this coral bleaching simulation.

Image credits (from top): Photo of fish [Photo by João Batista Campos (Flickr Creative Commons)]; Photo of kelp [Photo by Fred Hsu (Wikipedia Creative Commons)]; Photo of diver and coral [NOAA's National Ocean Services (Flickr)]

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Learn about life in the ocean, and then make a cool and tasty version you can eat!

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Click the + or - buttons to adjust the water temperature and pollution levels.

Click on the green "Start Storm" button to create a storm that will go by.

See what happens to the coral reef depending on the various conditions you choose!

Coral bleaching? What's that?!

A reef is a big group of rocks on the ocean floor, but did you know that a coral reef is actually alive and covered with very small animals called corals? These animals glue their tiny skeletons to rocks, so they end up staying in the same place their entire lives!

Coral reefs are very sensitive to light and temperature. If the water they live in gets too hot, they might not survive. They also don't like it when the ocean has too much pollution. Sometimes, storms can even upset coral depending on how often they happen and how severe they are. If coral reefs are under too much stress, like in these conditions, they can eject the algae living on them and turn completely white. This is known as coral bleaching. This does not necessarily mean the coral is dead - corals can survive bleaching! They do become more vulnerable to death however, especially if the stress continues for a long period of time.

NASA recently developed some very sensitive instruments to study coral reefs from an airplane flying above the ocean. The COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) uses an instrument called the Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer (PRISM) to see the condition of reefs. Scientists will now be able to monitor these reefs and their health. They will be able to measure the amounts of coral, algae, and sand on the ocean floor!

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Learn what factors lead to coral bleaching.

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What is PebbleGo Next?

PebbleGo Next is the ideal enhancement to your PebbleGo subscription. With it, you'll provide 3rd-5th grade students with hundreds of curriculum-connected articles designed for their specific needs in:

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Take the next step in digital citizenship and research when you add all 4 PebbleGo Next modules to supplement your existing PebbleGo subscription.

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Get to know what’s good and bad using these cards.

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How to Play

Play Go With the Flow to learn about ocean currents-and to unlock the hidden treasure!

In this game, you are in a submarine and you need to fix the currents to take you where you want to go. Where do you want to go? You want to get the key to the treasure chest full of gold!

Here are the two rules to remember:

Salt makes water heavier, so it sinks.

Heat makes water lighter, so it rises.

In your current management toolbox, you have these tools:

How Currents Work in the Ocean

The rules of the game are how ocean currents work in real life, too. Salt makes water heavier, so it sinks. Heat makes water lighter, so it rises.

If you have tasted the ocean, you know it is very salty. Salty water is "thicker" or denser than fresh water. That is why it is easier to float in the ocean than in a fresh-water swimming pool or lake.

Does that mean that fresh river water would float on top of salty ocean water? It all depends on the temperature. Heat makes water lighter, or less dense. So, warm salt water might float on colder fresh water.

In the ocean, things get even more complicated. The ocean is salty, but some parts are saltier than others. For example, every summer, some of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean (near the North Pole) melts. Then in winter, it freezes again. The salt doesn't freeze; only the water freezes.

The salt from the ice mixes into the water below, making it even saltier. When the salt-free ice melts the next summer, the melted fresh water tends to make the nearby upper ocean less salty. But the melt water is also colder, which makes it sink.

All this heating and cooling and melting and thawing creates big ocean currents. Cold water sinks near the North and South Poles. Cold water also flows toward the equator, getting warmer as it goes. As the cold water warms, it starts to rise to the top and sends the warmer surface water back toward the poles. The warm water flowing from the equator toward the poles helps warm the climate in North America and Europe.

This ocean motion is called the "great ocean conveyor belt." The movement of water on this conveyor belt makes Earth a nice place to live. Without it, the equator would be way too hot and the northern and southern parts of the planet might be frozen all the time.

What would happen if the ocean became too warm and the ice did not form?

As Earth gets warmer, less ice forms in the Arctic each winter and more ice melts in the summer. How are these changes in the ocean's surface temperature and saltiness-or salinity-affecting the ocean currents? How is the melting and heating affecting the average sea level?

NASA spacecraft are collecting information about ocean temperature and salinity all the time. The information they collect will help scientists find the answers to these questions-and more!

For example, the NASA mission SMAP -short for Soil Moisture Active Passive-has an instrument that measures the salinity on the surface of the sea. This information can help us better understand when and how the ocean currents are changing.

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Go With the Flow: An Ocean Currents Game

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In this ocean currents game, use heat and salt to float your sub to the treasure!

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Quite a lot, actually!

But to understand what the trees tell us, we first have to understand the difference between weather and climate.

is a specific event-like a rain storm or hot day-that happens over a short period of time. Weather can be tracked within hours or days. is the average weather conditions in a place over a long period of time (30 years or more).

Scientists at the National Weather Service have been keeping track of weather in the United States since 1891. But trees can keep a much longer record of Earth's climate. In fact, trees can live for hundreds-and sometimes even thousands-of years!

One way that scientists use trees to learn about past climate is by studying a tree's rings. If you've ever seen a tree stump, you probably noticed that the top of the stump had a series of rings. It looks a bit like a bullseye.

These rings can tell us how old the tree is, and what the weather was like during each year of the tree's life. The light-colored rings represent wood that grew in the spring and early summer, while the dark rings represent wood that grew in the late summer and fall. One light ring plus one dark ring equals one year of the tree's life.

Because trees are sensitive to local climate conditions, such as rain and temperature, they give scientists some information about that area's local climate in the past. For example, tree rings usually grow wider in warm, wet years and they are thinner in years when it is cold and dry. If the tree has experienced stressful conditions, such as a drought, the tree might hardly grow at all in those years.

Scientists can compare modern trees with local measurements of temperature and precipitation from the nearest weather station. However, very old trees can offer clues about what the climate was like long before measurements were recorded.

In most places, daily weather records have only been kept for the past 100 to 150 years. So, to learn about the climate hundreds to thousands of years ago, scientists need to use other sources, such as trees, corals, and ice cores (layers of ice drilled out of a glacier).

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What Can Trees Tell Us About Climate Change?

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Tree rings can provide information about past climate!

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Learn new things about living things all over the planet.

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Ocean acidification is a change in the properties of ocean water that can be harmful for plants and animals.

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Rainy days can be a bit of a bummer. For many, a rainy day means being pent up inside and missing out on all kinds of fun outdoor activities. Cancelled baseball games. No afterschool soccer. Who needs that?

The state of California does, actually. California is in the middle of its third year of intense drought. If you are an outdoor enthusiast who dislikes rain, California is probably the place for you! You can count the number of significant rainstorms California has experienced over the last year on one hand. The past two winters have been among the driest since record keeping began in 1879.

Problems for California Farmers

Don't pack your bags just yet. Despite it putting a crimp in your outdoor fun, rain is actually vitally important. Not only do the millions of people in California need water to drink, California farmers also need to figure out how to grow their crops (that feed and sustain us) with less water. This continues to be a bigger challenge as the drought grows more severe.

It's not hopeless, though. There are steps farmers can take to prepare to give their crops the best chance for success in hard times. Farmers can change the time of year when they plant crops, or in extreme cases, can switch over to other more drought-tolerant crops to remain profitable.

But making these big decisions requires detailed knowledge about how much water there is on a farm and how much water there might be in the future. One of the most important things to know is the amount of moisture in the soil where their crops grow.

New Challenges and New Tools

In the past, the best way for farmers to figure out this sort of thing was to put sensors in the ground all around their fields-a time-consuming and expensive process. Otherwise, farmers simply relied on their experience and observations.

But soon there will be a new way to look at soil moisture-from space! NASA has a new satellite called Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP for short) that can measure soil moisture using special kinds of sensors (or instruments). While there have already been satellites that measure soil moisture, this one will be a big improvement. It will calculate soil moisture across the entire globe every three days and with a high level of detail too!

Droughts are challenging for everyone. People will have to make big changes in how they use water, and new technology will have to be developed to use water more efficiently. SMAP is just one part of the equation, but it could end up being a really helpful one.

Related NASA Missions

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Rainy days can be a bit of a bummer. For many, a rainy day means being pent up inside and missing out on all kinds of fun outdoor activities. Cancelled baseball games. No afterschool soccer. Who needs that? The state of California does, actually. California is in the middle of its third year of intense drought.

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Why is Earth getting warmer?

Extra greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are the main reason that Earth is getting warmer. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO ₂) and methane, trap the Sun's heat in Earth's atmosphere.

It's normal for there to be some greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. They help keep Earth warm enough to live on. But too many greenhouse gases can cause too much warming.

The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil increase the amount of CO ₂ in our air. This happens because the burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO ₂.

It's important that we monitor CO ₂ levels, because too much CO ₂ can cause too much warming on Earth. Several NASA missions have instruments that study CO ₂ in the atmosphere.

Why does it matter that Earth's Climate is changing?

Over millions of years, Earth's climate has warmed up and cooled down many times. However, today the planet is warming much faster than it has over human history.

Global air temperatures near Earth's surface have gone up about 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the last century. In fact, the past five years have been the warmest five years in centuries.

A couple of degrees may not seem like much. However, this change can have big impacts on the health of Earth's plants and animals.

How do we know what Earth's climate was like long ago?

We know what Earth's past climate was like by studying things that have been around for a long time. For example, scientists can study what Earth's climate was like hundreds of years ago by studying the insides of trees that have been alive since then.

But if scientists want to know what Earth's climate was like hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago, they study sediment cores and ice cores. Sediment cores come from the bottoms of lakes or the ocean floor. Ice cores are drilled from deep - sometimes miles - below the surface of the ice in places like Antarctica.

A drilled ice core kind of looks like what you get if you plunge a drinking straw into a slushy drink and pull it out with your finger over the end of the straw.

The layers in an ice core are frozen solid. These layers of ice give clues about every year of Earth's history back to the time the deepest layer was formed. The ice contains bubbles of the air from each year. Scientists analyze the bubbles in each layer to see how much CO ₂ they contain.

Scientists can also use ice cores to learn about the temperatures for each year. As snow accumulates onto a growing glacier, the temperature of the air imprints onto the water molecules in the ice.

Scientists who use trees, ice cores, and lake and ocean sediment to study Earth's climate are called paleoclimatologists. They look at all of these sources of information and compare their findings to see if they match up. If they do, then their findings are accepted as being most likely true. If the findings don't agree, the scientists do more studies and collect more information.

In the case of Earth's climate history, the results from many different kinds of studies agree.

How can so little warming cause so much melting?

It takes a lot of energy to warm up water. However, the oceans do absorb heat, and they do get warmer. This warmer water causes sea ice to begin to melt in the Arctic.

Information from NASA's Earth satellites shows us that every summer, some Arctic ice melts and shrinks, getting smallest by September. Then, when winter comes, the ice grows again. But since 1979, the September ice has been getting smaller and smaller and thinner and thinner. So, just a small amount of warming can have a huge effect over several years.

Arctic Sea Ice Each September From 1979-2018

Glaciers are another form of melting, shrinking ice. Glaciers are like frozen rivers. They flow over land like rivers, only they move much slower. Warmer temperatures cause them to flow more quickly. Many of them flow toward the ocean, breaking into huge chunks that fall into the water.

What does sea level tell us about climate change?

More glaciers are melting into the ocean, and the global sea level is rising. Sea level rise is another clue that tells us Earth's climate is getting warmer. But melting ice is not the only cause of rising sea levels. As the ocean gets warmer, the water actually expands! Scientists have observed that the sea level has risen 7 inches in the last 100 years.

To learn more about how we know Earth's climate is changing, visit the "Evidence" page on the NASA Climate website.

Related Resources for Educators

Story Map: Sea Ice Extent and the Earth System

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We know Earth's climate is changing because of the evidence scientists have collected over many years.

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Why is the ocean important for life on Earth?

The ocean is important because it is a very large part of our planet. In fact, it covers 70% of Earth's surface. The ocean is a home and food source for countless fish, mammals, plants, birds, and more.

The ocean plays an important role in whatever happens in our environment on Earth. Even if you live on land - like humans do - you wouldn't survive without the ocean!

One example: without the ocean, Earth would be much hotter than it is right now. That's because the ocean absorbs heat from the Sun and spreads it more evenly around our planet.

How does the ocean soak up heat from the Sun?

Water is excellent at storing heat. Water has a high heat capacity-it absorbs a lot of heat before it begins to get hot. Air, on the other hand, is not so great at storing heat.

Earth's climate is warming due to human activities. As Earth experiences a warming climate, we experience hotter air temperatures. The ocean does an excellent job of absorbing the extra heat from the atmosphere, delaying the full impact of global warming.

The top few meters of the ocean store as much heat as Earth's entire atmosphere. So, as the planet warms, it's the ocean that gets most of the extra energy. More than 90% of the global warming is going into the ocean.

But if the ocean gets too warm, then the plants and animals that live there can get sick or even die.

How are coral reefs affected by climate change?

Coral reefs are created by living creatures. Warming oceans caused by climate change are putting coral reefs in danger. Coral reefs are made by very fragile colonies of organisms that build skeletons around themselves.

Coral lives together with a certain kind of colorful algae. The algae make food using sunlight ¬- a process called photosynthesis. The algae share the food with the coral, and in turn, the coral gives the algae a safe and comfortable place to live.

The two of them get along fine, living in clean, clear, shallow waters where the Sun shines through brightly. Fish and other sea creatures love coral too, because there are lots of nooks and crannies for them to hide in.

But the algae cannot carry out photosynthesis in water that is too warm. The algae either die, or the coral spits it out. It's bad for the algae, the coral and the fish, because the coral lose their food sources and become weak and can die. This event is called coral bleaching, and it is a very serious problem in many ocean ecosystems around the world.

Read about what it's like to be an ocean scientist studying coral reefs.

How does the ocean soak up CO₂?

Fish and other animals in the ocean breathe oxygen and give off carbon dioxide (CO ₂), just like land animals. Ocean plants take in the carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, just like land plants. The ocean is great at absorbing CO ₂ from the air.

However, a lot of CO ₂ comes from human activities, too. For example, exhaust from cars, planes, and factories put extra carbon dioxide into our air. Too much carbon dioxide in the air is a problem, as it causes the Earth to trap more heat. The ocean absorbs about one-quarter of the CO ₂ that humans create when we burn fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas).

Too much carbon dioxide in the ocean causes a problem called ocean acidification. You can read this article to learn all about ocean acidification and its effects.

How does the ocean affect the climate?

The ocean absorbs heat from the Sun and ocean currents move that warm water all around the planet. Ocean currents are like highways that carry water around the world. Heat (along with salt) is a major source of power for ocean currents.

Cold water near the North and South Poles sinks deeper into the ocean. Water near the equator is warmed by the Sun. Then, the warm surface water moves closer to the poles where it cools and sinks.

As Earth's climate warms, the water also warms melting sea ice. This warming could make the water less cold and less likely to sink. Without sinking cold water, the ocean currents could slow down or stop in some places. This could change the climate in places like Europe that have milder climates thanks to the warm currents in the oceans around them.

Does the salt in the ocean do anything?

The amount of salt in the ocean also affects currents. Saltier water is heavier than less salty water. When salty ocean water freezes, the ice can no longer hold on to the salt. Instead, the salt mixes with the water below making it saltier and heavier. Glaciers, land ice and icebergs are made of fresh water, so what happens when this ice melts? Good question!

The water in the North Atlantic sinks because it's cold, but also because it's salty. Being both cold and salty makes it really dense and heavy, so it can sink very far. But if too much ice melts in the North Atlantic, the water could become less salty and affect ocean currents. NASA satellites are keeping a close eye on the melting ice, the ocean currents, and ocean life to better understand this complicated system.

Play Go With the Flow to use temperature, salinity, and ocean currents to find treasure!

How does climate change impact sea level?

As Earth warms, NASA has observed that sea levels are rising. Water expands as it gets warmer. So, warm water takes up more room in our oceans, and this leads to higher sea levels. Another reason that oceans are rising is due to melting ice on land. Glaciers and ice sheets are large masses of ice that sit on the land. As our planet warms, this ice melts and flows into the oceans. More water in the oceans makes sea level higher.

NASA satellites are constantly measuring sea level around the globe. Learn more about how we measure sea level with satellites.

Related NASA Missions

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How Does Climate Change Affect the Ocean?

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Additional heat and carbon dioxide in the ocean can change the environment for the many plants and animals that live there.

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How does the greenhouse effect work?

As you might expect from the name, the greenhouse effect works ... like a greenhouse! A greenhouse is a building with glass walls and a glass roof. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, such as tomatoes and tropical flowers.

A greenhouse stays warm inside, even during the winter. In the daytime, sunlight shines into the greenhouse and warms the plants and air inside. At nighttime, it's colder outside, but the greenhouse stays pretty warm inside. That's because the glass walls of the greenhouse trap the Sun's heat.

The greenhouse effect works much the same way on Earth. Gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat similar to the glass roof of a greenhouse. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases.

During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere. Earth's surface warms up in the sunlight. At night, Earth's surface cools, releasing heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That's what keeps our Earth a warm and cozy 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius), on average.

How are humans impacting the greenhouse effect?

Human activities are changing Earth's natural greenhouse effect. Burning fossil fuels like coal and oil puts more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

NASA has observed increases in the amount of carbon dioxide and some other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Too much of these greenhouse gases can cause Earth's atmosphere to trap more and more heat. This causes Earth to warm up.

What reduces the greenhouse effect on Earth?

Just like a glass greenhouse, Earth's greenhouse is also full of plants! Plants can help to balance the greenhouse effect on Earth. All plants - from giant trees to tiny phytoplankton in the ocean - take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

The ocean also absorbs a lot of excess carbon dioxide in the air. Unfortunately, the increased carbon dioxide in the ocean changes the water, making it more acidic. This is called ocean acidification.

More acidic water can be harmful to many ocean creatures, such as certain shellfish and coral. Warming oceans - from too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - can also be harmful to these organisms. Warmer waters are a main cause of coral bleaching.

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Learn more about this process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat.

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What Is This Game?

Now that your kids are experts on life in the jungle, they can try keeping a whole jungle ecosystem alive! This game allows players to see how the different species of plants and animals in a rainforest depend on one another, and to experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem. Their goal is to put together a balanced ecosystem, in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days. The longer their ecosystem lasts, the more points they will earn for their sticker collections.

Conversation Starters

Explore Some More

Green Space Inventory

Next time you are out walking in the neighborhood, make a note of all the open green spaces you find - lawns, gardens, parks, even the landscaped traffic islands in the middle of many large roads. When you return home, draw a simple map of your neighborhood, labeling the streets you walked on. Color in all the locations where you found green spaces. Is there more or less green space in your neighborhood than you thought before? What does this tell you about how many animals can live in your neighborhood?

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Now that your kids are experts on life in the jungle, they can try keeping a whole jungle ecosystem alive! This game allows players to see how the different species of plants and animals in a rainforest depend on one another, and to experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.

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Ecology site designed so that children learn from a young age to love and protect our planet with educational games, articles and activities.

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Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems | Nature | PBS LearningMedia

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This collection of science videos and media-enhanced lesson plans draws upon the powerful documentaries of public television’s award-winning natural history series, Nature. The video segments have been carefully selected to engage students with key curriculum concepts. The lesson plans incorporate hands-on activities, online resources, and video to interactively and creatively address topics and standards in Life Science/Living Environment and Earth Science.
See below for highlights from the latest season of NATURE.

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The Earth is made up of many different environments. Some are biomes. Others are habitats

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Water Cycle & Watersheds: Ways of Watersheds | PBS NC Science | PBS LearningMedia

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A lot of precipitation (rain, snow or sleet) falls directly into the ocean, lakes, river, and other bodies of water. But what happens to the precipitation that hits the land instead of the water? Watch this animation to find out.

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Learn about how water moves all around our planet.

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View the Ecosystem Books collection on Epic plus over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids.